Troubled Creation aim for fifth

Pescarolo and Audi dominated today's official free practice session at the La Sarthe circuit, tying up the top four positions.

By comparison, Creation were only ninth quickest after a troubled day, with Nicolas Minassian's best lap being 7.3 seconds behind overall pacesetter Franck Montagny.

"In order to win, we'll need some luck," Janowski told autosport.com. "There will be attrition, I'm sure. Look at what happened to Pescarolo last year; Audi, with their new package, one car did not finish in Sebring.

"We have a package that's pretty well tried and tested - the V10 Judd is very good, and the car is now strong. So we'll see.

"But realistically, I think the money must be betting for an Audi victory, or a Pescarolo victory, and the podium taken up by those two. But for us, barring attrition, maybe a top five.

"The Audi itself is a new package so something could happen; the Pescarolo have a strong line-up in one car, and a mixed line-up in the second car. So there could be issues. But the whole thing about this race is going round and round... which is something we haven't done very well today!"

Minassian suffered a puncture at high speed in the initial morning session, and Felipe Ortiz had brake problems in the afternoon. Minassian then suffered fuel pressure difficulties when he got back in the car meaning the team ran the least amount of laps of any of the LMP1 runners - just 40.

"I suppose, philosophically speaking, that's what testing is about, but you wish it wouldn't happen, and these are not some things that usually happen," Janowski added.

"It's difficult to tell our pace because Nic is the fastest driver and he's only done four flying laps. We know the car is quick - it's as quick as any of the other ones at the front, but we haven't had a chance to show it. I think in the morning, we were third at times, and now we're miles away from the fastest pace.

"We essentially have a driver line-up that isn't as strong as others. We've got two professionals and an experienced third driver, Felipe Ortiz. He's extremely experienced, but he hasn't driven the car that much before and it takes a while to get used to, so his pace won't be the same as Frank Biela's in an Audi, it's impossible.

"The top lap times are pretty much there, this is it as far as race pace goes. I don't know about the Audi - we don't really know what it can do; but Pescarolo are probably pretty much where they're showing on the timesheets."